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What's a compositor? Mystery Cache

Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:


Once upon a time, a young boy left school at the end of grade 10. Within two weeks, he was working in the printing industry as an apprentice compositor. After better than three dozen years, he's still in the same business. Typesetting – that’s what compositors do – has always been a precise, mathematical process, but like navigation, the methods have changed over the years. The lead type is now a keyboard, the ink is toner and the printing presses are hot rod photocopiers that print, collate and bind an entire book in one pass.

By considering a couple of lesser known constants from the bygone days of the craft of setting type, you can find my cache. The posted co-ordinates are in the vicinity of the cache, so between that, the photos and the checksum, you should have a pretty good idea where to go. In case your GPSr is playing games, you DON’T have to climb over the chain-link fence near the motorway.

While you’re there, note the amount of traffic passing by. Hmmm . . . all that money . . . which is probably quite safe. I mean, would you want to show up at the Ferrari or Lamborghini dealer with 863 bags of one and two dollar coins plus assorted silver?

UPDATE: The toll booths are gone and so is my chance of stealing all that lovely money :)

The questions:

____ AAA

The height of the lead letters is critical as they all need to be exactly the same height. This measurement is called "type high". What is “type high”, in inches, to three decimal places? Just the three, don't round up or down.

____ BB

If your old typewriter uses the "Pica" standard, how many characters to the inch does it print?

____ CC

How many points in a pica?

____ D

How many characters are incorporated in an "ffi" ligature?

____ E

The lead used for type had three components – lead, tin and "something else". How many letters in the name of the missing component?

____ FF

All letters are characters, but not all characters are letters. How many characters in the following classic typing exercise?
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.

____ G

In 1971, a pot of beer cost around 20 cents at the Jubilee Hotel. How many pots would a 15-year-old apprentice be able to buy with his almost $20 weekly pay packet?

CHECKSUM: AAA+BB+CC+D+E+FF+G = 997

All these answers are floating around inside my head – along with a lot of other stuff that only comes to light while playing Trivial Pursuit. If you know an old compositor, one who's not forgetful from the lead, ink, solvents and alcohol, maybe he can help you. Otherwise it's off to the virtual world with you. If you're really, really stuck, I’ll give you a hint, but only one and you have to acknowledge my help in your log.

The arithmetic:
____ UU = FF–BB
____ V = 40÷E
____ W = CC÷2
____ X = G
____ Y = CC÷D
____ ZZZ = AAA+UU+Y

The co-ordinates:
S27° UU.VXW E153° XY.ZZZ

Did you get it right?

The “setting a bad example for children” section:

If you’re into speleology or just a bit adventurous, you’ll love this. It's right near the cache. My mountain bike rushed in before I could stop it. Firstly, I discovered I couldn’t do a U-turn. Secondly, I discovered it’s 100 metres to the other side. Thirdly, I discovered it was a much shorter trip home this way. Yeah, I know, there’s probably some law about it, but . . .

Additional Hints (No hints available.)